Trump dissolves advisory councils due to CEO resignations

The Associated Press

Published 2:14 pm, Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Photo: AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File

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In this Wednesday, April 27, 2016, file photo, Campbell Soup Company President and CEO Denise Morrison speaks in Southfield, Mich. On Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2017, Morrison resigned from a White House jobs panel over comments about racism made by Trump. less

In this Wednesday, April 27, 2016, file photo, Campbell Soup Company President and CEO Denise Morrison speaks in Southfield, Mich. On Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2017, Morrison resigned from a White House jobs panel ... more

Photo: AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File

Trump dissolves advisory councils due to CEO resignations

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NEW YORK >> The latest on President Donald Trump (all times local):

1:25 p.m.

President Donald Trump says he’s ending a pair of White House advisory councils that were staffed by corporate chief executives.

CEOs have been resigning since Saturday, when Trump blamed both sides for the weekend violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, between white supremacists and counterprotesters. The resignations accelerated after Trump on Tuesday again blamed “both sides.”

Trump says on Twitter that “rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both. Thank you all!”

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1:20 p.m.

The CEO of Campbell Soup is resigning from a White House jobs panel over comments about racism made by President Donald Trump.

Campbell CEO Denise Morrison said on Wednesday in a company release: “Racism and murder are unequivocally reprehensible and are not morally equivalent to anything else that happened in Charlottesville. I believe the president should have been — and still needs to be — unambiguous on that point.”

Trump suggested in remarks Tuesday that the white supremacists and counterprotesters were both blameworthy for violence that erupted this weekend in Virginia.

White House chief of staff John Kelly, left, watches as President Donald Trump speaks to the media in the lobby of Trump Tower, Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2017 in New York. Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP / Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP

White House chief of staff John Kelly, left, watches as President Donald Trump speaks to the media in the lobby of Trump Tower, Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2017 in New York.

Morrison said the president’s comments triggered her resignation from the manufacturing jobs panel.

Morrison is the seventh person to resign from two major advisory panels this week following Trump’s comments.

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12:30 p.m.

The chief executive of 3M is resigning from the president’s Manufacturing Jobs Initiative panel, saying it is no longer an effective forum for the company to advance its goals.

Inge Thulin’s (ING’-geh Too-LEEN’s) resignation is the sixth following President Donald Trump’s comments after the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.

In a statement, Thulin says: “Sustainability, diversity and inclusion are my personal values and also fundamental to the 3M Vision. The past few months have provided me with an opportunity to reflect upon my commitment to these values.”

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noon

Former Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush say in a joint statement that “America must always reject racial bigotry, anti-Semitism and hatred in all forms.”

Their comments come a day after President Donald Trump gave weight to the complaints of white nationalists by declaring at a press conference that counterprotesters shared the blame for violence that erupted last weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The Bushes, both Republicans, say that as they pray for Charlottesville, they’re reminded of “that city’s most prominent citizen in the Declaration of Independence: We are all created equal and endowed by our Creator with unalienable rights.”